Geneva, On Its Being Severed From The French Empire, And
Recovering Its Independence, Solicited The Helvetic Union To Be Admitted As
A Member And Component Part Of That Confederacy; Which Was Agreed To, And
It Was And Remains Aggregated To It Also.
In 1815, on the return of Napoleon from Elba and on the renewal of the war,
the Bern Government
Made a most barefaced attempt to regain possession of
the Canton de Vaud; to this they were no doubt secretly encouraged by the
Allies, and principally it is said by the British Government, the most
dangerous, artful and determined enemy of all liberty; but this project was
completely foiled, by the penetration, energy and firmness of the
inhabitants of the Canton de Vaud and of its Government in particular. The
central Government of the Union was at that time held at Bern and it was
agreed upon in the Diet that Switzerland should remain perfectly neutral
during the approaching conflict; an army of observation of 80,000 men was
voted and levied to enforce this neutrality, but the command of it was
given to De Watteville, who had been a colonel in the English service, and
was a determined enemy of the French Revolution and of everything connected
with or arising out of it. On the approach of the Austrian army, De
Watteville, instead of defending the frontier and repelling the invasion,
disbanded his army and allowed the Austrians to enter. No doubt he was
encouraged, if not positively ordered to do this, by the Government of
Bern, many members of which are supposed to have received bribes from the
British Government to render the decreed neutrality null and void.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 187 of 558
Words from 51035 to 51315
of 151859
